Organised agriculture wants in on KZN’s agri master plan

Two of KwaZulu-Natal’s prominent organised agricultural bodies have stated that they want to play advisory roles in the review, ongoing development and implementation of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s (KZN DARD) Agricultural Master Plan for 2020 to 2025.

Representatives of the KwaZuluNatal Agricultural Union (Kwananlu) and of the KZN chapter of the African Farmers’ Association of South Africa (KZN AFASA) expressed this view after it was learnt that the KZN DARD had recently hosted a strategic planning review in which Kwanalu and KZN AFASA had not been invited to participate.

Asked why this was the case, KZN DARD spokesperson, Phathisa Mfuyo, replied that the meeting had been held exclusively for the department’s senior management and for representatives of the KZN DARD’s Agribusiness Development Agency, the Mjindi Farming entity, the national Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the national Department of Rural Development and Land Reform.

Mfuyo, told Farmer’s Weekly: “External stakeholders at this point were not invited. However, the KZN DARD will undertake a series of consultations with all agricultural stakeholders in the province before the 2020 and 2025 Agricultural Master Plan is finalised and tabled in the legislature.”

KZN AFASA’s provincial secretary, Thube Zondi, said:

“We are very disappointed with the slow processes of [KZN DARD] with the planning for the current [summer] planting season. The [KZN DARD] will fail the farmers this year and poor communities are the ones that will get [negatively] affected a lot.”

Sandy La Marque, CEO of Kwanalu, said that the organisation “hoped that [the KZN] DARD will adopt a far more inclusive approach and hear the voice of farmers”. “Speaking to farmers through special development forum discussions we have held, it becomes apparent that farmers are disillusioned with [the KZN] DARD. Farmers feel trapped in small-scale or subsistence projects with limited or little assistance and access to meaningful and unfettered inputs, whether it be financial or extension,” she said.

La Marque reminded the MEC of KZN DARD, Themba Mthembu, of the public-private agricultural advisory body that Kwanalu had recommended Mthembu establish some time ago. This body’s primary aim would be to benefit all KwaZulu-Natal farmers.

“Kwanalu, [agricultural] commodity leaders and successful farmers should constitute this body. This can only really happen when we all work together.

“The public-private partnership model must extend through all realms of agriculture,”

La Marque said. – Lloyd Phillips